Stacking Towels

OUR DEBT TO THE HEROIC MEN AND VALIANT WOMEN IN THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY CAN NEVER BE REPAID.  THEY HAVE EARNED OUR UNDYING GRATITUDE.  AMERICA WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR SACRIFICES. – PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN

While eating lunch today my son Aleck told me about a WWII veteran who visited his classroom this past week.  As he rattled off facts about the war, soldiers, freedom, medals, shrapnel, guns, tanks, airplanes, and the Hero he was blessed to meet, I found myself becoming teary.  All the history I knew about war flooded my mind and I became overwhelmed by the courage possessed by men and women who fought and still fight for our Country…for my freedom…for my family’s freedom.  And then I realized President Truman’s quote is true, except for one sentence…the last one – AMERICA WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR SACRIFICES.  I think we have forgotten.  Sure we say thanks on Veteran’s Day, Fourth of July, Armed Forces Day, and Memorial Day, but do we really remember the price brave people paid to get our country through some of the darkest days imaginable?  I’m not saying it’s an intentional or an arrogant forgetfulness.  I think it is a product of who and what we have become as Americans….busy, busy, busy, spoiled, spoiled, spoiled, and sometimes(most of the time) wrongly focused people.  We forget how truly blessed our Country is and we forget those who made it all possible.  So it is with the passion I saw in my son’s eyes as he retold WWII stories that I say, ” Thank you to all the courageous men and women who serve/have served our great Country.”

Aleck made me start thinking about gratitude on a bigger level.  A lesson Aleck taught me when he was 2 years old came to mind today.  This is the lesson I’d like to share with you in this Blog post :

I sat on the bathroom floor, my elbows on my knees, my chin in my hands, my back against the wall(in more ways than one).  I was exhausted.  Amy was in the hospital and I was giving the Twins their nightly bath.  As I watched them play, the steam coming off the bath water seemed to surround me, covering me in hopelessness.  My nostrils sucked in and filled my lungs and soul with defeat each and every breath.  Aleck and Emma Grace had their favorite animals lined up on the edge of the bathtub.  I smiled at them if and only if I caught their eyes meeting my own and even that seemed to exhaust my body.  My thoughts drifted off…oh how we missed Amy…and a normal life.

“Kerplunk!”…and crying began.  Aleck’s favorite elephant had fallen off the side of the tub and came to rest at my feet.  He started crying.  I didn’t say a word. He reached for it.  His feet were splashing the top of the water making a sound like a fish on a hook about to be brought into a boat.  He struggled…reaching….grunting….and crying.  He was so small the edge of the tub met his underarm so he couldn’t reach the floor.  It wasn’t even close.  I didn’t say a word.  I picked up the elephant and held it out.  Aleck slapped it away yelling  “Nooooooooo.  I can do it!”  It fell back to the floor.  “I can do it!  I can get it!”, he cried.  The struggle continued.  He reached and reached.  He cried and cried.  Finally, I couldn’t take watching him fight for the fallen elephant anymore.

What I did next was surely what any wise father would do.  Was it a talk about not giving up?  Fighting hard?  Learning to know when enough is enough?  A “you’ll be big enough one day” motivational talk?….No.  I just sat…and watched.  I noticed every third kick and reach, Aleck would put his head down and close his eyes while he strained and willed his arm to be 7 inches longer.  So every third kick I reached to a stack of towels beside me, grabbed one and put it under the elephant.  When his eyes closed, I stacked another towel…then another…and another.  Before long that special little elephant had been elevated just enough to be within reach of my son’s tired wrinkly little hand.  I was sure he knew what I was doing and waited for a “Thanks Daddy”.  Just then Aleck held the elephant up and said  “Daddy!  You see that?  Did you see what I can do?  See what I did all by myself?”  I silently stood up, walked out, and returned with my journal.  I immediately wrote the lesson I had learned while Aleck and Emma Grace played happily with their animals.

So many times in our lives we fight and fight and fight…we put our heads down…close our eyes…and thrash around.  We think we can handle our struggles and we don’t want any help.  We exhaust ourselves because of stubbornness, pride, or arrogance.  We reach and reach…when we aren’t even close.  Then when we do get through our fight…struggle…dark days….Who do we credit?  How often do we say to the world ” LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!  LOOK WHAT I DID!”   We’re so excited, surprised, and proud….we haven’t even noticed one important thing.  GOD was stacking towels.  GOD was helping us even though we put our heads down…close our eyes…not to pray…but instead to thrash about unnecessarily, relying on ourselves over and over and over again.  We don’t even realize HE is constantly stacking towels.  Even though I received no credit for helping Aleck reunite with his elephant, I would do it all over again…the exact same way…towel after towel after towel…because I love him.  And though we so often forget to give GOD credit, appreciation, and gratitude….He loves us.  He will always love us my friend.  I don’t know what you may be going through in your own life…what hardship you face…what your family faces…what you can’t seem to get over….what pain you feel day in and day out…I do know my own struggles…my own pain.  But it will be ok.  We will be ok.  And today, I’m just reminding myself…and you to take a deep breath and simply say  “Thank you GOD…Thank you for stacking towels for me.” 🙂

“With arms outstretched I thank.  With heart beating gratefully I love.  With body in health I jump for joy.  With spirit full I live.”

– Terri Guillemets

 

One thought on “Stacking Towels

  1. Sherry says:

    I thought I discovered your blog by accident, I read them because I know Amy and your precious children, but realized as I read them, that this was the one I was led to read. Thank you.

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